The Musketeers: 107 “A Rebellious Woman” Review

March 10, 2014

2200

Reviewed by Lewis Hurst.

Another week, another standout episode from The Musketeers. After three great episodes, I’m going to go out and say that it certainly seems as if the show has finally overcome the stumbling problems the first half of the series faced. And I’m really coming around to that theme tune too.

A story based around gender equality was an interesting choice for this episode and one that certainly paid off. The character of Ninon was exemplary. A truly brilliant female character, and this is a show packed with brilliant female characters. Sometimes in television you get very strong feminist characters who sometimes come on too strong thus becoming annoying. Ninon was played perfectly and came across as a well-rounded and thoughtful character that portrayed her beliefs well. Of course this was further helped by a stunning performance from guest star Annabelle Wallis who some older viewers may remember portrayed Jane Seymour in the period Drama The Tudors. Her short-lived romance with Athos was a nice touch, even if it didn’t particularly lead anywhere.

And of course, this week saw the welcome return of Maime McCoy as Milday de Winter. Being absent for the past few weeks, Millady felt like she’d never been gone. McCoy was an absolute joy in this installment. Filling the character with lots of villainous grace, she was the centre of attention every time she was on screen. When sharing said screen with Peter Capaldi, that is saying something. It was great to see her storyline with Athos develop a little more. When Milady passed Athos in the courtroom I audibly gasped with excitement and of course, once Athos found out she was there I was practically on the edge of my seat with excitement. I’ve found the running storyline between Athos and Milady to be one of the strongest things about the series so it’s good to see it progress a little further. With Athos now knowing Milady is in Paris and under the employ and protection of the Cardinal, one wonders how this will change Athos as a character in the remaining three episodes.

But, without a doubt, the star of the show here was Peter Capaldi yet again. I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot, but Capaldi is honestly that good! You can see why Capaldi is one of the most popular actors in Britain at the moment, even before he was cast as a certain physician. Capaldi just blew me away. When Richelieu was poisoned and lay dying, Capaldi was able to bring a sense of determination and power to the man that was actually quite scary. Even when dying, the Cardinal is still a force to be reckoned with. It seems that his brief encounter with his own mortality has made Richelieu a changed man… but certainly not a better one. If the final scenes suggest anything, we’re in for a much more ruthless Cardinal than before. As he said himself, no one is going to stand in his way. And if this means we’re going to see a lot more Capaldi over the next few episodes, well, bring it on.

Of course I must also mention the big development this week; D’Artagnan and Constance starting an affair. While this was certainly on the cards from the get go, I’m honestly surprised it occurred at this stage. I would have preferred an episode devoted to developing the two’s relationship first before they started locking lips but hey, maybe one is coming? Since the next episode seems to be D’Artagnan heavy, hopefully the writers will use this time to develop their relationship more. Since at the moment it’s only been light flirting between the two, the relationship seems to have developed a lot off screen. So yeah, more time between D’Artagnan and Constance please!

Another shout out to Mr Murray Gold though! Another excellent score for this week’s episode, even if I did detect a few hints of the Silence theme from Doctor Who at one point. And of course, Richard Clark did an excellent job in the director’s chair. The shots felt grand and epic and to say I was only watching on my laptop and that the quality wasn’t the best (with my TV being off for repair one has to make do), but I was still blown away shot after shot. And that is commendable.

So all in all, this was another superb episode of The Musketeers. Considering the last few episodes have been of very high quality, I have very high hopes for the remainder of the series.

I don’t understand what was wrong with episodes 2-4? Episode one was obviously not the best, but every show is allowed to have one bad episode to start with, as long as they show signs of improvement and they most certainly did from episode 2 on wards. Sleight of Hand was a really enticing adventure. Commodities was a fantastic piece of drama and hugely developed Athos. The Good Soldier was another good piece of drama, Aramis seen some development, it was intriguing seeing the Musketeers questioning whether they could trust their leader and there werequite a few shocking reveals towards the end of it that I was not expecting. The Homcoming did have some good drama in it towards the end, and it was nice to see some development of Porthos. However there was a couple of times they just kept repeating the same idea over and over again and never really develop, OK WE GET HE ABANDONED THEM, MOVE ON! It was also annoying when a one or two times the characters looked like they were going to do die and would have made a good bit of drama, but then they didn’t and on one occasion or another, without any explanation. I really don’t see why people liked it that much, it was pretty predictable for most of it. Then the episodes returned to a much better standard. I don’t get what it is people didn’t like about some of the episodes, but they only ones for me that I didn’t enjoy greatly compared to the rest, were Friends and Enemies and The Homecoming. Other than that, the series has been pretty awesome so far.

The Administrator

I found nothing wrong with Episode 3 (if you have a look back you’ll see I gave it a whopping 10/10), I enjoyed Episode 2 but I found Episode 4 to be the worst of the lot. The show has been struggling to find a consistent tone and style and Episode 4 was pretty much everything bad about the show so far magnified. I have really enjoyed the show so far and it has advanced from being merely “good” to “great” over the past few weeks. And I found the Homecoming to be a lot of fun. But that’s obviously my opinion.

PK-S

Another excellent review, Admin! They just get better and better! Hope you’re well.

The Administrator

I’m doing ok thanks! :)

PK-S

Glad to hear it :)

Theoncomingpenguin

Hey admin! How are you? I’m enjoying reading these reviews a lot (I’m a bit bored not being able to talk to you guys so something to read is always appreciated). This episode also gave me high hopes for Capaldi as The Doctor seems I’ve not seen him in much before.